Snapchat’s map feature, which we highlighted yesterday, is getting a special spotlight in the news today for their real-time tracking of current events. The Nieman Journalism Lab reports that Tuesday’s terrorist attack in Manhattan was captured through Snapchat photos and videos, and made viewable to all through the Snapchat map when users post to their stories. This is leading to an increase in amateur reporting that might be considered more trustworthy because users know average people are behind the camera, rather than a specified media corporation or broadcaster.

Bye-bye traditional news media!

The hottest toy on the market appeals to the Youtube generation

Forget the Hatchimals of Christmas 2016. L.O.L. Surprise! is the newest collection of toys from MGA Entertainment. MGA decided to skip advertising through television commercials, instead focusing their marketing tactics on YouTube. The L.O.L. Surprise! collection makes kids feel like an unboxer on YouTube (like Ryan) and they are encouraged to record the unwrapping of these gifts.

We bet that unwrapping each layer feels like this.

Vigilante students take on fake news

Two UC Berkeley students are tackling bots on Twitter to distinguish between real and fake content. Ash Bhat and Rohan Phadte are computer science students who saw the tense political climate in the U.S. and decided to do something about identifying propaganda accounts on Twitter. Their project is called “Botcheck.me” and is available as a Google Chrome extension.

It can be hard to tell the difference between real and fake news.

Customize your Starbucks cup

It’s November 1st, which means Starbucks has put out their annual holiday cups! With so much criticism in the past (remember the green cup vs. red cup debate?), Starbucks has decided to let their customers choose the new look. Each “colour-in” cup allows the customer to create unique, individual designs.